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->'''Buffy''': I told one lie. I had one drink.\\'''Giles''': Yes, and you were very nearly devoured by a giant demon snake. The words "Let that be a lesson" are a tad redundant at this juncture.-->-- ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', "Reptile Boy"

The author has an important [[AnAesop Aesop]] for the audience. There's an urgent course of action they want you to take, and they've decided to show you the tragic consequences of ''not'' doing so.

Trouble is, the real consequences, while they may be serious, aren't the sort that can easily be made to fit the RuleOfPerception. Maybe they take decades to show up, [[SelectiveEnforcement if they show up at all]]. Maybe they happen so subtly that it's hard to show ''why'' the action should be taken.

Worse, maybe there isn't yet agreement on what the real consequences are. How can we be ''sure'' what will happen to the Earth [[Film/StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome if we drive all the humpback whales extinct?]]

So the author dreams up some improbable, highly unforeseeable consequence to [[ScareEmStraight scare you into complying.]]

When done right, the improbable consequence will be a close analogy or a sharp metaphor to the probable one - just increased in scale, speed, or concreteness. You know irreparable damage will be done to the earth's ecosystem if the whales go extinct, but not ''what'' irreparable damage; and so, you arrange it so that the absence of whales leads to aliens endangering all life on Earth - ''especially'' the humans.

When done wrong, it'll defy all logic. Often, how well it comes off depends on how close you're looking and (if the consequences are still unknown) what you believe.

Named for (and derived from) the plot of Star Trek IV, which can best be summed up as "'''Don't let whales go extinct, or else an alien probe will eradicate the planet.'''"

This trope should not be confused with FantasticAesop. The Fantastic Aesop promotes a course of action which can't even be ''attempted'' in the real world (e.g. "Never use black magic to resurrect the dead") by showing a reasonably plausible set of consequences ("Poor beloved Tropey CameBackWrong".) The Space Whale Aesop promotes a course of action which ''can'' be attempted in RealLife ("don't perform nuclear tests") by showing ''consequences'' that strain credibility ("radiation from the tests will awaken [[{{Franchise/Godzilla}} a giant monster]] that [[TokyoFireball destroys Tokyo]]") instead of a more realistic but not quite as dramatic example ("[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmvbjcmyKGo it can burn whole buildings if someone is careless]]").

Overlaps with GaiasVengeance if the intended message is an [[GreenAesop environmental one]], which it often is. Overlaps with SpoofAesop when the author is more interested in the space whale than the Aesop.

[[TropesAreNotBad This is not necessarily an indefensible trope.]] If your purpose is to both teach the audience a highly applicable lesson ''and'' to [[RuleOfFun entertain them with a fantastic scenario]], then a Space Whale Aesop is probably the best way to go. Also, sometimes you just can't fit the realistic consequences of an action into a twenty-three-minute episode or a 120-minute film, so you need to speed things up a bit.

Before posting anything think for a second: "Is this supposed to be an Aesop?" If it was ''not'' intended as an Aesop then that is an AccidentalAesop.

----!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Advertising]]* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9-kblZwfv0 "No Pressure"]]: Agree to cut carbon emissions, or someone will press a button and [-BLOW YOU TO BLOODY BITS!-] So {{Anvilicious}} it's ridiculous. Many of the Website/YouTube commenters (amongst other people) have taken the message to be "do as we say or we'll murder you". Which considering that several activists have proposed trying oil company executives for crimes against humanity ... isn't actually that unreasonable.* From [[AnimalWrongsGroup PETA]]: [[http://surftweeters.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Peta-Shark-Attack-Ad.jpg Fish eaters may experience turnabout.]] Sharks eat humans, so we should voluntarily stop eating fish? Surely we should eat more fish, [[BrokenAesop especially shark fin soup]]!* [[Advertising/GetRidOfCable A series of DirectTV Network advertisements]] [[InvokedTrope intentionally invokes]] this trope for comedy with such aesops as:** "Switch to Dish or you'll get angry, go play raquetball, get your eye injured and get an eyepatch which thugs will use as a reason to beat you up, knock you unconscious and leave you in a ditch." So remember kids, go satellite for your safety!** [[InsaneTrollLogic "If you have cable, you'll pound your table in frustration with how terrible it is, which will cause your daughter to copy that behavior and punch the lunch out of her principal's hands when she gets older, which will get her expelled, which will cause her to hang out with street toughs, which will cause her to marry a street tough. 'Don't have a grandson with a dog collar.'"]]** If you have cable, you'll throw your remote in frustration, which will just barely miss your wife's head, which will make her assume you have anger issues, which will make her leave you, which will leave you all alone, which will make you grow a beard and become an animal hoarder.** If you have cable, you'll get depressed, go to self-help seminars, get motivated enough to go to Vegas, where you lose everything and are forced to sell your hair.** If you have cable, you'll get unhappy, go to Happy Hour, get happy enough to try a Turkish Bath House, where you'll meet Creator/CharlieSheen and start re-enacting scenes from ''{{Film/Platoon}}''.** As a defense attorney, if you don't have Direct TV, you'll be distracted, which means your work will suffer, which will cause your innocent client to get convicted, which will cause him to become obsessed with your failure to get him cleared, which will cause him to blow up your house when he gets out.** If you have cable, the massive price of the bill will make you feel powerless. So you'll want to feel empowered, which will lead you to signing up for karate classes, which will lead you to become a superhero known as the "Fist of Justice" which will have you jumping on rooftops. And when you jump on rooftops, you'll crash through a skylight into a dinner party.** If you wait a while for the cable guy, you'll become bored, look out your window and see things you shouldn't see (the disposal of a body, in this case), so you'll need to vanish, fake your death, dye your eyebrows and attend your own funeral under an alias.* Caprisun "Respect the pouch" adds, throw away your punch pouches with reverence or you'll be the victim of a nightmarish BalefulPolymorph.%%* [[http://static03.mediaite.com/themarysue/uploads/2012/04/TWSbatmandrug.jpg A deliberate evocation.]]* The Advertising/WilkinsCoffee [[http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Wilkins_Coffee commercials]] that Creator/JimHenson made in the 1950s were approaching this with obvious irony long before irony in advertising was a thing.* "[[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/never-say-no-to-panda Never Say No to Panda]]": Buy Panda Cheese, or [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYz3sl0LEA4 a panda will appear before you and destroy whatever you're doing!]]* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRKUqlpxvSI This ad for Toshiba]] demonstrates the reason why they make their computers so durable. [[ZombieApocalypse Albeit, a bizarre improbable reason]].* An insurance ad indicates that if you have the wrong car insurance, not only will your experience with the company be much more annoying than it otherwise would be, but your girlfriend will break up with you in favor of... a pig.* The message of one PSA is right in the title of this article about it: [[http://www.independent.co.uk/student/news/henryaaron-stay-in-school-or-else-you-will-die-a-bloody-death-video-warns-students-not-to-skip-class-9098522.html stay in school or else you will die a bloody death]], specifically from landmines in a well-marked danger zone. (Could be hyperbolically justified if the implication was that the characters skipped so much school they were actually illiterate.)** Turns out, this one is a hoax made by an Ad agency as a parody.* In California, there have been some [=PSA=]s in designed to discourage texting and driving, the concept being that texting and driving will [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJbqNiFDVtI turn you into a zombie]].** In a somewhat similar vein, a road safety [=PSA=] promises that wearing your seat belt will protect you from traffic accidents and zombies. Okay...[[/folder]]

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]* The underlying lesson of ''Anime/PrettyCure'' seems to be "it's good to have friends who are different from you, so you can defeat monsters from another dimension." It gets spelled out in [[Anime/PrettyCureAllStars the first DX movie]], in which the girls are fighting a monster with an AssimilationPlot on its mind and give a rousing speech about how their differences make them stronger because everyone brings something different to the table.* The final arc of ''Anime/EarthMaidenArjuna'' features a {{Broken|Aesop}} {{Green|Aesop}} Space Whale Aesop. "Save the environment, but don't use advanced human science to save the environment from human-produced garbage, or else giant worm monsters will exploit your invention to send corrupt modern society back to the Stone Ages." If you look more closely, though, you see something different. Using human science isn't the problem. The heroes ''use'' human science to aid in their efforts and it works great. The issue is that humans weren't attentive enough and so things have now got to a point ''where human science is not enough'' and the earth basically has to go through a cycle of destroy and repair (there's a very strong analogy to the inflammatory response in humans). So really the aesop is "If you don't save the environment while you can, the earth will revolt and take over repairing itself, while humans will be powerless to do anything except watch." * ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'': Racism is bad! Because people of minority races are [[spoiler:immune to the GovernmentConspiracy's magic memory wiping that they use to cover up where the man-eating giants are coming from! It's possible this was meant to show how some often-persecuted minorities are more aware of when governments are being oppressive.]]* ''Manga/XxxHolic'' pretty much runs on these kinds of aesops since it assumes AllMythsAreTrue: don't lie or you'll get so paralyzed by them that you'll be run over by a car, don't cut your toenails at night or a giant insect will chop your head off, don't kill someone or your act of murder will be reenacted on every photograph and video that has you in it…etc.* An episode of the {{hentai}} ''Sex Craft'' demonstrates that you shouldn't break up with the guy you're dating just because he's too shy to make the first move, because... if you do that, his unquenched desire will escape his body in the form of an evil ghost thing and go on a rape spree.* ''Manga/ShinryakuIkaMusume'' teaches us [[GreenAesop not to pollute the ocean]] or a cute Squid Girl will come to surface and try to invade it!* [[SpoofAesop Parodied]] in an episode of ''Anime/CowboyBebop''. [[spoiler:"Clean out your fridge or its contents will become sentient and start attacking people."]]* ''Manga/TriGun'': Don't practise slavery, otherwise [[spoiler: an alien {{Human Alien|s}} [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Ubermensch]] will slaughter half of your species with his giant knife arms]].* ''Anime/YuGiOh'''s fourth season presents one: always trust immature manchildren if they've tried to imprison your soul in a trading card; if you don't, they'll commit hostile corporate takeover to ''make'' you listen.* ''Anime/ParanoiaAgent'': Take responsibility for your own actions and don't lie, or you'll [[spoiler:conjure a {{tulpa}} with your PsychicPowers and almost destroy your city.]]* ''Manga/{{Batman}}'', from its story "The Revenge of Professor Gorilla": don't abuse apes in circuses and in scientific research, because then when your mad science accidentally gives them superhuman intelligence and psychic powers they'll try to exterminate humanity.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]* ''ComicBook/ChickTracts'' do this by giving his transgressions explicitly magical consequences, since the real consequences of the behavior he warns against are both intangible and ''heavily'' disputed. For instance, "don't let your kids play ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', or they might become actual witches, or commit suicide because their character died" is probably the most famous example (who knows what he thinks of ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft''). Another strip seems to suggest that you shouldn't go to parties because the bartender might actually be Satan, and yet another that believing in Santa and the Easter Bunny will turn children into God-hating, terrorist serial killers. Chick's been keeping pace with the times: more recently, his tracts suggest that reading Literature/HarryPotter will make you into a full-fledged Satan worshiper [[CursedWithAwesome with demon-summoning powers]]. And worse, [[TheFundamentalist the author]] seems to honestly believe these are all perfectly realistic consequences.* There was a ''ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}'' arc which involved a South American country with a ruler who suffered acute superhero envy backed up by an ex-Nazi cyborg. Either of them sound like an awesome main villain? The final villain was ''evil crack from the dawn of time'' which drove its victims insane and, at one point, absorbed Wolvie into its horrifically bloated gooey true form. The message was DrugsAreBad. It even gave us ''ComicBook/TheKingpin'' [[EvenEvilHasStandards expressing distaste for drug dealing]], making it not just a Space Whale Aesop, but an ''{{Anvilicious}}'' Space Whale Aesop.* The ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'' comic plays this for laughs when a time-traveling Brooklyn [[BreakingTheFourthWall breaks the fourth wall]] to teach a lesson to the audience:-->'''Mary''': Don't you know what is going to happen?-->'''Brooklyn''': Too much TV, too few history books. (points at the reader) You never know when a giant flaming magical time-traveling bird is gonna swallow you whole and spit you out in the tenth century. So hit those books, kids!* ComicBook/JohnnyTheHomicidalManiac did this for laughs.-->Kids, don't do drugs. They'll only turn you into a hideous little freak troll-baby with exploding eyeballs.* Deliberately {{invoked|Trope}} by {{ComicStrip/Dilbert}} in [[http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2006-08-05/ this comic]]. Apparently, this is the only way to assure his clueless managers make reasonable decisions.-->'''Dilbert''': ''If we don't upgrade our servers, a herd of trolls will attack our headquarters.''-->'''Manager''': ''[[WindmillCrusader No trolls]]!''* ''Comicbook/UncannyAvengers'' gives us "Don't be racist or else giant men from space will appear and blow up the Earth." Odin even gives [[Comicbook/TheMightyThor his son]] an [[AuthorFilibuster extended speech]] about how while the Celestials pulled the trigger, it was ultimately humanity's own inability to stop fighting over petty differences that caused them to deem us a "failed experiment." Though there were a few extenuating circumstances, such as one of those giant men having been murdered by a human mutant was what kicked off the crisis.[[/folder]]

[[folder: Fan works]]* In Shadow Snark:-->Sometimes you have to tell your friends they suck at everything, otherwise they'll blow up a laundromat.* ''FanFic/YouGotHaruhiRolled'' gives the moral of always being nice to minor characters, lest they befriend the bad guys and destroy the world. Also a SpoofAesop because it's a CrackFic.* The lesson of one plot arc in the ''Film/TheAvengers'' fanfic [[http://archiveofourown.org/works/657592/chapters/1198458 "Multicolored"]], which deals with Bruce Banner's (canonical in the comics) DarkAndTroubledPast and the psychological aspects of the Hulk, is "be sensitive to other people's PTSD, because if you insist on dredging up traumatizing subjects and trigger them too hard, they could turn into a giant technicolor rage monster."* ''FanFic/TheEndOfEnds'': [[AnAesop You can never truly change who you are, and even if you ''do'' change, you are who you are and that can’t change.]] It had to take an OmnicidalManiac who was destroying the universe to hammer that into Terra's head.* ''FanFic/SonicXDarkChaos'': Don't believe in Christianity or Islam or Judaism, or else you'll be manipulated by evil aliens into fighting a ForeverWar and/or be eaten by [[TheVirus Shroud parasites]].[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film]]* The {{Trope Namer|s}}: ''Film/StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome''. The intended aesop is "don't assume you can use up Earth's natural resources without consequence, since someday your survival might depend on them," but an early draft involving a plague in the 24th century whose cure was lost in the destruction of the rain forests was considered unworkable, and director Leonard Nimoy found whales to be majestic, so the much more entertaining aesop of "save the whales or else a gigantic SpaceWhale probe will appear out of nowhere to destroy Earth" was born.* ''Film/TheHappening''. Preserve the environment, or else [[spoiler:the plants may get pissed and release a deadly neurotoxin that makes you kill yourself [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment because of the deadly neurotoxin that the plants are releasing into the]] [[strike: [[VideoGame/{{Portal}} Enrichment Center]]]] air.]]* Standard in horror movies with a DeathBySex message, since showing real negative consequences of sex is often non-dramatic (even deadly [=STDs=] take years or decades to kill) or, worse, X-rated. These aesops range from from [[DeathBySex "have sex and Freddy or Jason will kill you"]] to "the SealedEvilInACan can only be opened by two people having sex on top of it (even if they don't know what it is) to "if you have sex, then you will shock and horrify your six-year-old sister whom you didn't know was watching, causing her to becoming depressed and making her vulnerable to PuppeteerParasite".* ''Film/{{Teeth}}'' evokes an old Space Whale Aesop: "Don't rape a girl, or the [[VaginaDentata teeth in her vagina]] will bite off your dick." Also, "...and the audience will cheer her on because [[AssholeVictim you deserve it!]]"* ''Film/{{Daybreakers}}'' makes this work by making it a rather broad Aesop: "Conserve your resources and be nice to the people who produce them for you, or your society will descend into chaos and you'll end up a lot like all these starving vampires." Granted, you won't be starving for ''blood'' specifically, and that descent into chaos probably won't involve a ZombieApocalypse like theirs; in all other respects, however, the point stands.* ''Film/TheDayAfterTomorrow'': [[GreenAesop Cut down on greenhouse-gas emissions]] or the Earth will enter a new ice age and New York City will freeze solid--By the ''end of this week''. And deadly sub-zero frost lines that instantly turn anyone into a HumanPopsicle will ''hunt you down!'' Furthermore, in case that wasn't a tangible enough deterrent, said ice age will also cause wolves to escape from a zoo and come after you and your family. Also (once you've learned your lesson), Earth's entire climate will start being nicer to you again if you'll start being nicer to third world countries.* ''The Day the Earth Stood Still'': [[Film/TheDayTheEarthStoodStill1951 the original]] called for humanity to abandon its reckless nuclear aspirations if it ever wants to travel into space without getting obliterated by {{Sufficiently Advanced Alien}}s. [[Film/TheDayTheEarthStoodStill2008 The remake]]? Aliens just want to obliterate humanity to "[[GreenAesop help the environment]]". In the original, Klaatu even states that his race didn't care in the slightest what humans did on their own planet…but human affairs officially became their problem when the first space missions were launched with humanity capable of creating nuclear weapons. [[Main/FridgeBrilliance Seems]] the reason for the change might be, that real life humanity [[Main/CompletelyMissingThePoint got the message]] from the original and [[Main/BrokenAesop decided to give up space travel beyond low Earth orbit]].* ''Film/TheAbyss'' (director's cut): Yet again, but with awesome special effects. Also: If you make up with your estranged wife, then [[ThePowerOfLove you can prevent submarine aliens from killing everyone.]]* The made-for-television [[ChristmasSpecial holiday film]] "The Night They [[SavingChristmas Saved Christmas]]" is not terrible, but it's based on this kind of Aesop: Don't drill in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge because you might harm Santa's workshop. And then [[spoiler: it goes ahead and [[BrokenAesop breaks its own Space Whale Aesop!]]]]* ''TheDayTheEarthCaughtFire'' (1961) warns that atomic testing could send the Earth spinning out of orbit towards the Sun. The bad science is somewhat offset by the 'documentary-style' realism of the story.* ''TheCrackInTheWorld'' warns in the utmost seriousness that atomic testing could literally ''split the Earth in two''.* Invoked in-universe in ''Film/{{Watchmen}}''. [[spoiler: Adrian's message to earth: stop fighting or ''Dr. Manhattan will come back from space and make you DIE.'']]* ''Film/{{Prophecy}}'' teaches us that if you let paper mills pollute nature, it will create killer mutant bears that will hunt you down.* Creator/EliRoth films: stay at home, around people you know, because if you go anywhere on vacation, you will either catch a flesh-eating virus or be dissected alive for sport.* ''Cyber Seduction: His Secret Life,'' don't ever look at even the softest of softcore porn or your girlfriend will dump you, you will suddenly suck at whatever you were good at before and the kids you thought were cool will beat the shit out of you.* ''{{Film/Birdemic}}'': If you contribute to global warming, birds will develop acidic spit and WWII bomber engines, and attack people at random.* ''{{Film/Gojira}}'' and its fellow [[{{Kaiju}} giant monster movies]] can be perceived this way: [[ILoveNuclearPower The use and/or testing of nuclear weapons invariably mutates ordinary creatures]] [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever into horrendous monsters that are almost as destructive as, well, a nuclear weapon]]. (But against ''your'' side!) Of course, the Japanese audience of ''Godzilla'' didn't need to be persuaded against atomic bombs, so that particular movie is as much an ''allegory'' of the known effects as it is a warning; the American imitations are thus closer to this trope.** ''Film/MothraVSGodzilla'': [[GreenAesop Take care of the earth]] and don't be [[CorruptCorporateExecutive a greedy jerk]] or two giant moths will destroy your city. * ''Film/WRMysteriesOfTheOrganism'': Have sex, or else you will become a psychopathic murderer.* ''Film/IronMan3'': Don't be a jerk to awkward, crippled, disheveled nerds, or they will become evil, rich, and work with terrorists in hopes of destroying your life.* Passed over rather quickly in ''Film/PacificRim''; Geizler mentions that the {{Kaiju}}'s [[spoiler:creators']] initial attempt to take over the planet failed owing to a lack of compatibility with the atmosphere, but now that humans have sufficiently polluted our planet, it's ripe for a batshit insane monster takeover. Go figure.* ''Film/{{Waterworld}}'' basically shows the potential consequences of global warming by taking the whole "flooded coasts" thing UpToEleven.* ''Film/{{Avatar}}'' gets its strong pro-conservation message across by inventing the planet Pandora: a flawless paradise untainted by technology, where deforestation is depicted as evil because it nearly leads to the destruction of a sentient organic [[BrainComputerInterface mind-linking supercomputer]] that lets the resident aliens communicate with their dead relatives, and where nearly everything that humans had to develop through technological advances--medicine, transportation, shelter, and even ''data storage''--is naturally provided by the [[GeniusLoci living ecosystem]].* The horror anthology film ''Film/BodyBags'' does this in the segment "Hair": Having too much vanity and being insecure about your physical appearance to the point of trying out mystery experiments will result in [[spoiler:becoming a host for parastic wormlike aliens who will snack on your brain.]]* ''Film/ReeferMadness'' is an interesting example because, while the effects of marijuana were not widely known when the film was made, the guesses the film made are known today to be an exaggeration at the best of times, and often plain wrong.* ''Film/GameraVsZigra'': Pollute the oceans and a Nazi space fish will attack the planet, supported by a {{Brainwashed}} Japanese woman in {{Fanservice}}y clothes. Also our only hope for surviving this attack is a giant monster. There are, shall we say, certain issues with trying to mix philosophical discussions with {{Kaiju}} beating the snot out of each other.* ''Film/{{Godzilla 2014}}''. As usual to the franchise's origins as a metaphor. Building up nuclear arsenals results in [[NatureIsNotNice the awakening of ancient creatures]] who feed off of radiation, and any attempt to harness or fight back nature is met with a swift fate - and in the end, only the balance of nature itself (Godzilla) saves the world.* ''Film/BrideOfTheMonster'' teaches us that if you toy with nature (or, as the film puts it, "tamper in God's domain"), you might end up blowing up in a nuclear mushroom cloud.* ''Film/{{Harmless}}'' is about a sentient PornStash that harms its owner's family. Say what you will about the moral itself ([[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment elsewhere, please]]), but it breaks down somewhat since real porn stashes, um, aren't sentient.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]* Pretty much every moral lesson in the German moral children's book ''Literature/{{Struwwelpeter}}'' works this way.** Thumb-sucking summons up a scissors-wielding tailor who [[{{Fingore}} snips off the offending digits]]; fussy eating habits result in death by starvation; and going out in a rainstorm to play leads to being hurled away to your doom by a sudden gust of wind. There is also a girl who ends up as a pile of ashes after playing with matches despite admonitions from her parents and her two pet cats. And many similar.** {{Deconstructed|Trope}} in Creator/JasperFforde's ''The Fourth Bear'', one of the NurseryCrime series, with "Cautionary Valley." The series takes place InAWorld where fictional characters come to life; the valley is a favourite haunt of Aesop-delivering Space Whales, led by the aforementioned scissors-wielding tailor. Children raised in this neighborhood are well-behaved to a [[StepfordSmiler downright creepy level]]. Prior to the events of the book, the parents ''[[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans were perfectly fine with it]]''.* Pretty much every punishment in Dante's ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'', especially, of course, those featured in Inferno.* AIIsACrapShoot: a lot of stories that use this trope as their premise basically end with "AI research is dangerous, since [=AIs=] will invariably become homicidal tyrants determined to enslave or destroy the human race." Parodied in JohnSladek's RoderickAtRandom, which is told from the point of view of the world's one artificially intelligent robot. One conversation he has goes (roughly):-->'''Scientist''': Well, we of course we can't risk researching AI. We've run simulations, and it could turn out they get so smart that they realize they don't need humans and decide to wipe us out.-->'''Roderick''': Or, they could get so smart they realize wiping out other species is pointless.-->'''Scientist''': Oh, I didn't say there were no counterarguments.* ''Adventures of the Rope Warrior'' tells us you should exercise regularly and eat right...so aliens can't harvest your body for the impurities a sedentary life inflicts to fuel their intergalactic drug trade. And the Space U.N. won't decide the only viable way to stop the drug dealers is to blow up Earth.* In a number of Creator/HPLovecraft's stories, the lesson we're supposed to learn is "[[FamilyUnfriendlyAesop Don't breed with other races]], or your town will be corrupted and your kids will be demonic mutant freaks." By "other races" he meant, of course, [[ValuesDissonance people with skin colors different from your own]], but in the actual stories this was expressed more as "monstrous fish people and tentacular {{Eldritch Abomination}}s" and the corruption would often take the form of some kind of [[ReligionOfEvil ancient crazy pagan cult]]...Yeah, [[{{Understatement}} he was a bit of a racist]]...If anything, the real lesson of these stories was [[BestialityIsDepraved not to screw fish]], which is just common sense, really.** And given the proliferation of naughty tentacles, furry fetishes, and other things, even the SpaceWhaleAesop is becoming ValuesDissonance.* ''Literature/UnLunDun'': Don't pollute, or else the smog will become sapient and take control of people's minds, making them destroy a fantasy world and then ours.* ''Literature/StateOfFear'': Don't give in to people believing in global warming, or ecologists will destroy the planet with their weather-control machines. And do not blame the civilization for all evil or you will be eaten by Papua-New-Guinean cannibals. Attack a Sci-fi author's book because you disagree with his doubts about global warming, and he'll give you a cameo as a child molester in his next book.* ''[[Literature/MyTeacherIsAnAlien My Teacher Flunked the Planet]]'', a children's book. Stop all war and feed the hungry, or else aliens will destroy Earth. The first two books (''My Teacher is an Alien'', ''My Teacher Fried My Brain'') were suspense/adventure books with no moral to preach, but the preachy moral showed up in the third book, which has at least one good, long AuthorFilibuster about how HumansAreTheRealMonsters. Although there was also a hidden one in here - TV rots the mind. Specifically, an alien taught us how to make TV to slow down our technological development, in hopes that we might resolve societal problems before we got to space.* The moral of Coleridge's ''Literature/TheRimeOfTheAncientMariner'' is "be compassionate towards all creatures and don't go around murdering innocent seabirds, or else you'll wind up stranded in the middle of the ocean, all your friends will die, their corpses will torment you, and when you eventually make it to land you'll be forced to constantly wander the world telling your story instead of being able to live a normal life." Music/BruceDickinson put it best. "And the moral of this story is: This is what not to do if a bird shits on you."* Some of Creator/EnidBlyton's stories for younger children. For example, ''The Magic Lemonade'': "Don't torment insects, or you might get shrunk by magic so that insects can torment you". ''WesternAnimation/TheAntBully'' has this same trope, sans lemonade.* ''Literature/LogansRun'': Don't become a hippie. Hippies want to get everyone stoned, destroy the family, raise children in creches, revoke age-of-sexual-consent laws, and kill off everyone over twenty-one (raised to 30 in the movie).* Pretty much any and all BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor stories end this way, most notably ''Literature/TheMonkeysPaw''. Among other examples, wishing to have money resulted in the family [[spoiler:having their son die in a terrible industrial accident, followed by them receiving tons of money in compensation from the factory]]. Wishing you had more money is not wrong or dangerous just because a cursed artifact interpreted the wish to negative results. If anything the real Aesop is "[[JackassGenie Genies are jerks]]." In the case of ''Literature/TheMonkeysPaw'', the Aesop intended by the character who created the paw was [[YouCantFightFate "those who defy fate do so to their sorrow."]] Because apparently fate is a {{Jerkass}}.* The book ''Chocolate Fever'' by Robert Smith does this. It's about a boy who eats chocolate with everything and then one day he breaks out in a chocolate rash.* ''Literature/CaptainUnderpants and the Perilous Plot of [[UnfortunateNames Professor Poopypants]]'': Don't make fun of people's names, or else they'll shrink you to the size of a bug and make you change ''your'' name to something absurd to make themselves feel better. Although this could just be a way of saying, "Don't make fun of people, because what goes around comes around." This is lampshaded by the characters at the end as their only time their story had a moral, but the narrator then points out the FantasticAesop driving the entire story: never hypnotize your principal or he'll believe he's a superhero every time he hears the sound of someone snapping their fingers.* In [[KingArthur Arthurian Legend]], the origin of Merlin involves his mother (a nun) being raped by an [[HornyDevils Incubus]] at night…because she [[UnfortunateImplications had an argument with her sister and neglected to say her nightly prayers that night.]] So don't forget to say your prayers, and don't argue with your siblings, or you'll be raped by [[HornyDevils demons]]. This may be a case of [[ScienceMarchesOn knowledge marching on]]; the moral would make sense for people who believed that demons are real and saying prayers really will protect you from them, which people likely did back when the legend was born.* Babette Cole's ''Literature/WinniAllfours'' has quite a bad one for parents. The heroine's mother and father won't buy her a pony and make her eat lots of vegetables. Except that Winni works out that by eating all her greens, she'll turn ''into'' a pony! Once that's done, she's no longer dependent on her parents. So what kind of moral can we learn from that? "Don't try imposing limits on your kids, because they'll still succeed and it'll be all the worse for you?"* ''Literature/TheAdventuresOfPinocchio'': "Don't skip school and have endless fun, or else you'll change into a donkey".* The tale of King Midas has the message "If you desire gold too much, you'll turn your loved ones into statues." Only if you read it ''very'' literally, which is not the point of Greek fables. The actual moral is "If all you care about is wealth, then wealth will replace all you care about". It's a mundane Aesop made fantastic.* Some ValuesDissonance might be at play here, but most {{fairy tale}}s (in their original form, that is) might come across as this to modern-day audiences. How often do birds peck peoples' eyes out in the real world?* Quite a few novels for children have the admirable goal of wanting children to appreciate the importance of learning history and/or appreciating their parents. The method they use is to have the juvenile protagonist get stuck in the crapsack past because they dared not to want to learn history or didn't appreciate their parents. So you have books like ''Literature/TheDevilsArithmetic'' (Nazi death camp) ''Tune in Yesterday'' (racism in 1920s) and lots of books about being a slave in the 1800s.* Intentionally used in Creator/EdgarAllanPoe's short story "Never Bet The Devil Your Head", as part of the SpoofAesop. The reason it provides for the eponymous moral is that the devil might one day come to collect.* There's a picture book called ''You'll Be Sorry'' by Josh Schneider in which the parents of a girl named Samantha tell her to stop hitting her little brother or she'll be sorry. She ignores them and the little brother cries so much that he floods the entire town.* ''Literature/TheTimeMachine'' by Creator/HGWells is based on his socialist beliefs, and the central message is that, if the upper classes continue to oppress the working classes, the upper classes will evolve into pampered babies while the working classes will become cannibalistic monsters. At the time it was published, it was less space-whaley - both socialism and evolution were in their infancies at the time, and it seemed entirely possible that [[LamarckWasRight forcing people to work in unlit factories would turn them into cave-dwellers]]. Now, ScienceMarchesOn and SocietyMarchesOn, and TheReveal seems rather less plausible.* ''Literature/TheCandyShopWar'' has the rather straightforward ''don't take candy from strangers'' as its message. It's even flat out said by one of the characters in the books--who then explains that these strangers might be wizards who are handing out magical candy and can very easily kill you. It also doesn't help that those strangers owned a candy shop and a ice cream truck. Almost makes it into a Space Dentist's Aesop: Don't eat candy or wizards will kill you. Who needs cavities when you have that?* ''Heartlight''. Nothing lasts forever, and you had better accept this or else you could ''[[ApocalypseHow destroy the universe]]''.* ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear: The Planet Plague'' - Obsessing over {{Revenge}} for your DoomedHometown is not Jedilike, and if you have TheVirus it can speed your [[spoiler: [[BodyHorror transformation]] into a BlobMonster]] - when you're fighting, it's better to focus on what you're fighting ''for'' and ThePowerOfLove.* The ''Literature/MrMen'' book ''Little Miss Bossy'' spells it out directly: don't boss people around or they will put magical shoes on your feet that force you to dance until you apologize.* Literature/TheBible, Literature/BooksOfKings: Don't make fun of someone's baldness because they might call upon God to [[BearsAreBadNews summon bears that will maul you and your friends.]]* Creator/RoaldDahl was rather fond of these.** ''Literature/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'': Don't be a glutton, a gum chewer, a spoiled brat, or a TV fanatic, or you will get sucked up a pipe, inflated into a blueberry, fall into a trash chute, or get shrunk, respectively.** ''The Magic Finger'': Don't hunt ducks, or you will wake one day as a winged human the size of a duck while the ducks will become humanoid and hunt ''you'' for sport.** ''{{Literature/Matilda}}'': Don't be a mean teacher, or your smartest student will develop psychic powers with which to torment you.** ''Literature/TheTwits'': Don't be jerks to your pets, or they will trick you into gluing yourself to the floor [[spoiler:and then you will shrink into nothing.]]** ''Literature/TheWitches'': Don't trust strangers, because they might be witches who want to commit genocide on all children. [[FamilyUnfriendlyAesop Also, never bathe so witches can't smell you]].** ''Revolting Rhymes: Jack and the Beanstalk'': Bathe every day so giants can't smell you. Guess you'll have to deal with those witches.* ''Take a Good Look'' by Creator/JacquelineWilson: Obey your grandma's instructions not to go out alone, or you'll end up being taken hostage by armed robbers.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]* ''Series/TheTwilightZone'' episode "Stopover in a Quiet Town" has Creator/RodSerling delivering one of the most hilarious space whale aesops ever, in the smirking, self-aware tone that only he can. The episode deals with a married couple who awaken after a drunken car crash and gradually realize that [[spoiler: they've been abducted from Earth and are now being kept as pets inside a giant alien child's model town ...]]-->'''Rod Serling''': [[BlatantLies The moral of what you've just seen is clear.]] If you drink, don't drive. And if your wife has had a couple, she shouldn't drive either. You might both just wake up with a whale of a headache in a deserted village ... in the Twilight Zone.** Sterling was ''very fond'' of the IronicHell.* ''Series/DoctorWho'':** "The Underwater Menace" has a ScriptWank where the Atlantean chief decides that religion and superstition was what got them into the state where they were following an ObviouslyEvil MadScientist, and decrees the temple should be buried and a new age of enlightenment should follow... "without gods. [[BreadEggsMilkSquick And without fish-people]]."** "The Lazarus Experiment": If you don't test your new medical procedure before using it on yourself, [[spoiler: you'll turn into a giant human-eating scorpion monster]]. Also possibly a FamilyUnfriendlyAesop because it tries to claim that [[spoiler: trying to prevent people from getting old and dying makes you deserve turning into a giant scorpion]].** "42": If you [[spoiler: accidentally use sentient creatures while mining for fuel]] you will be [[spoiler: possessed by their angry kin so they can stalk your friends and family like a serial killer before falling into the sun.]] [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Also, the Doctor will yell at you.]] Bonus for implying [[spoiler: things like the BP oil crisis or rainforest devestation aren't caused by big corporations killing things slowly, but by the equivalent of seven guys in a beat-up truck who didn't know anything was there to begin with.]]** "The God Complex": Be careful what you believe in, because [[spoiler: a monster that feeds on faith may eat you.]]** "The Bells of Saint John": Don't use strange Wi-Fi accounts or you'll be uploaded onto an alien computer server in the Shard.** Don't structure your life around what you see on television or your face will be sucked off by Maureen Lipman.** It is ironic that [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E2TheBeastBelow the actual episode]] showing a space whale, containing a full fledged {{Aesop}}, cannot be considered an example of this.* The ''OneStepBeyond'' episode "Forests of the Night" taught us that [[spoiler: dabbling in the occult will cause you to turn into a leopard]]. The ''Twilight Zone'' episode "Jess Belle" is similar.* A bizarre {{inverted|Trope}} example from ''Series/SummerHeightsHigh'': drama-teacher Mr G. performs an energetic dance for his students, dressed in what looks like a giant white pillowcase. He asks his class what the dance represented. The correct answer was: [[spoiler: peer pressure]].* ''Series/TheXFactor'' also has this trope applying to it [[http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/view/156897/X-FACTOR-KATIE-S-NAKED-VID/ as seen here]]. Probably the biggest Space Whale Aesop the show has given out as a message - become a contestant and have your dirty laundry [[BleachedUnderpants literally launched into the limelight]].* From an episode of ''Series/{{SCTV}}'' - [[Literature/BenHur Jesus has magic healing booze]].* An in-universe example in ''Series/{{Misfits}}'': Simon tries to persuade the others that giving up their powers is a bad idea, but since he cites the example of ''Film/SupermanII'', the rest hear "give up your superpowers and General Zod will destroy the Earth." It fails to persuade them.* A sketch on ''Series/TheWhitestKidsUKnow'' features a kid Adolf Hitler being the nicest person in the entire town. In the last ten seconds of the sketch, he takes one bit of marijuana and suddenly wants to kill Jews.* The ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' episode "Beer Bad" combined an {{Anvilicious}} message about the dangers of alcohol with a plotline about cursed magical beer turning college kids into cavemen. It does lampshade it at the end, though:--> '''Xander''': And what have we learned about beer?\\'''Buffy''': Foamy.\\'''Xander''': (beat) Good. (cut to credits) I'm glad we had this talk.** Principle Snyder's introductory scene, when he scolded his (deceased!) predecessor for being too lax on the students, tells you everything you need to know about the show's logic. That kind of permissiveness, Snyder keens, is the kind of "wooly-headed liberal thinking" that "leads to being eaten" by hyenas.** ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' has a lampshaded version of this in which the ancient Irish race had vastly advanced technology. Then somebody invents whiskey, a few people take a sip, and crapsack island ensues.** There's also this delightful exchange from "Reptile Boy":--->'''Buffy''': I told one lie, I had one drink.--->'''Giles''': Yes, and you were very nearly devoured by a giant demon snake. The words 'let that be a lesson' are a tad redundant at this juncture.* "As we often learn at the end of an episode of ''Series/MythBusters'', everyday objects can, in fact, be made lethal if Jamie builds a gun to shoot them."* Future!Ted in ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' sometimes gives these out: the reason they're fantastic is because they're ridiculously narrow because they're all about the five main characters ("Don't fight with Uncle Marshall, he's nuts." "If you hang out with Uncle Barney, you'll have great stories to tell.") and will only ever apply to his kids (and perhaps Marshall and Lily's kids).* ''Series/PowerRangersWildForce'' had the initial message that humanity polluting the Earth helped make the Org spirits strong enough to return. It got even more Space Whaley when Animus showed up. "Humanity polluting the Earth will make our Mecha God mad and cause him to leave the world with the Power Animals and put Princess Shayla into a deep sleep forever." Other Power Rangers series often had Space Whale Aesops in filler episodes, like that if you tell lies all the time no one will believe you when an invasion of the body snatchers occurs and that sort of thing.* InUniverse on ''Series/{{Frasier}}'' -- when Frasier challenges his father to give him a reason when perjury could be justified, his first response is "what if a comet was hurtling towards Earth, and the only way you could stop it was by lying under oath?" Subverted, though, as he goes on to give a very personal example from his own experience ([[BrokenAesop unfortunately]] it relies upon HollywoodLaw).* On ''Series/MyNameIsEarl'', Joy tells an InUniverse tale to her kids to get them to behave and stop whining about having to do homework in the [[BottleEpisode "Creative Writing" episode]]. She (a beauty queen) flies the kids to the Crab Shack, and makes Earl fumble through one of those "If a train is going at X mph..." math problems. He gets it wrong, and they witness "Old Daddy" get hit by a train (the Crab Shack turned into a desert with train tracks.) Then they go back to the trailer, and they witness Randy being ThePigpen. Because he doesn't clean up, Randy gets CoveredInGunge on which moss grows, attacked by mice, and then everything from buildings to the Rocky Mountains sticks to him until he gets too heavy and falls off the Earth onto {{God}}'s desk and gets crushed by God's coffee mug. (And of course {{God}} tells Joy how beautiful she is.)** Apparently, strict gun control isn't always good because you never know when you'll need to [[ItMakesSenseInContext shoot a couple of weather balloons to keep two men from floating too high and dying.]]-->'''Darnell''': Yes, okay, when two men are floating away on a lawn chair tied to big balloons and one of them has left his parachute behind, that MIGHT be an okay time to have a gun!* Invoked in-universe in ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'', as part of Michael Bluth's HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood. George Bluth, Sr. apparently thought that the best way to teach his children important life lessons was to hire an amputee to pretend to lose an arm whenever they screwed up, teaching them that every mistake would lead to a man having his arm ripped off. Yelling too much while on the boat? A man will lose his arm. Forgetting to leave a note when you run out of milk? A man will lose his arm. Leaving the door open with the air conditioning on? [[NoodleIncident A man will]] ''[[NoodleIncident die]]''.* ''Series/BreakingBad'': The creators would have us believe that protagonist Walter White is to blame for the TwistEnding of season 2. Ergo, the moral of the season is: don't deal drugs, kill people and [[MurderByInaction fail to intervene when you find someone choking to death on their own vomit]], because that will inevitably lead to a mid-air collision which kills 167 people. Even the creator lampshaded the DiabolusExMachina in an interview.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]* Big Tent Revival's arguably most popular song, ''Two Sets of Joneses'': No matter how hard you work or how much your wife's father likes you, your marriage will fall apart very quickly if you don't have Jesus.* Adam and the Ants' best known song, ''Antmusic'' features a moral possibly inspired by the Creator/EnidBlyton example above:---> Don't tread on ant, he's done nothing to you ----> There might come a day when he's treading on you!* ''Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer'' reminds us not to trust "[[SantaClaus a man]] who flies a sleigh and plays with elves." Okay, then.* Music/{{Voltaire}}'s "The Mechanical Girl" leaves us with this very special message: "Never take a child away from a loving parent. Especially not ones who make children who shoot rockets from their eyes."* The children's song "Little Rabbit Foo-Foo," whose Aesop is if you hit field mice on the head, you'll be turned into a "goon." You've been warned.* [[Music/TheAquabats The Aquabats']] song "Cat With Two Heads!" tells the very important Aesop that if you use your scientific knowledge to create a two-headed cat in an effort to make the world a better place (you can pet one kitty's head... [[MundaneMadeAwesome and pet the other kitty's head!]]), you'll wind up with a two-headed man-eating monster.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Other]]* Parents sometimes use these to [[ScareEmStraight scare their kids straight]]. "Don't misbehave or the bogeyman will get you," and "Don't make that face or it'll stick like that," are famous ones. The residents of "Cautionary Valley" (under literature above) come from these scare-tales. Fforde's interpretation of the Scissor Man is fairly tame; he's a pussycat compared to the one that appears in Discworld/{{Hogfather}}, who is an emu-like being composed entirely of scissors.* In his book ''Wisdom of the Elders: Sacred Native Stories of Nature'', David Suzuki recounts a Chewong fable of the perils of disregarding the natural order. A childless man and wife were walking through the forest when they spotted a [[RidiculouslyCuteCritter squirrel]]. In their loneliness, they unwisely disregarded that this animal was part of the natural order, and brought it home with them as a pet. [[DisproportionateRetribution Suddenly, the hundred-foot-tall snake god Taloden asal burst forth from her eternal subterranean slumber and]] [[YourSoulIsMine ate their souls]]. The end.* According to some corners of the Internet, every time you masturbate, God kills a kitten. According to certain Native American mythologies, women who masturbate give birth to monsters. [[DoubleStandard But it's totally fine for men to do it]].* According to the Internet, every time you try to apply physics to a fantasy setting, God kills a catgirl.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Radio]]* GarrisonKeillor plays with this in one of his Lake Wobegon speeches on ''Radio/APrairieHomeCompanion''. The "moral" is: spare the ant in your yard, or else radiation might mutate all of the ants into giant mutants that will trample your house.* Parodied in one episode of ''Radio/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'': be careful what you say, because your words might travel down a [[OurWormholesAreDifferent freak wormhole]], get misheard by alien leaders at a conference as something insulting about one of them's mother, they'll end up going to war, eventually deciding the source of the problem is Earth which they team up to invade, and due to bizarre miscalculations of size, [[spoiler:end up getting swallowed by a small dog.]] And all because Arthur Dent is having terrible trouble with his lifestyle.** And this is the series where a real whale appears in space as one of the unintended consequences of pushing a button.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]* ''TabletopGame/{{Monsterpocalypse}}'', drawing from B-movie sources, is built on this trope. The most obvious examples are the Radical factions, the Terrasaurs and Empire of the Apes. Respect the environment and live in harmony with nature, or a giant monster (supported by hippies with rocket launchers and apes with jetpacks) will eat you.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Toys]]* ''{{Franchise/Bionicle}}'' has a message to politicians: if you're governors, then please do your job instead of appointing others to do it for you while you dedicate your life to something else, otherwise those appointed leaders may start a war, and your planet will explode. [[NuclearWeaponsTaboo That actually]] [[ApocalypseHow sounds pretty logical]].[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]* While it's not a use of ScareEmStraight, ''VideoGame/MegaManStarForce'' offers fantastically ''positive'' consequences of ''following'' the Aesop. Why are friends important? Because they give you HitPoint increases and special abilities! Also, if you're lost in space on a dead satellite, they can direct you back home with electromagnetic friendship laser beams. Not that the franchise doesn't have more traditional examples. ''VideoGame/MegaManBattleNetwork 4'', for instance, explained that you should be good, because if you're bad, an asteroid controlled by a sentient computer program will destroy the planet.* The moral of ''[[http://www.kongregate.com/games/larsiusprime/super-energy-apocalypse-recycled Super Energy Apocalypse]]'' is: Don't pollute, and do conserve energy, ''or else you'll be attacked by [[OurZombiesAreDifferent giant eyeballs]].''* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine'': ** "Always remember to brush your teeth!" Said straight after cleaning the teeth of a giant eel boss with a water filled jetpack because it was polluting an entire bay with purple poison.** "Remember, always be kind to your pets." If you're not, they'll turn into fireballs and cover the village in flaming goop. (Although those particular pets ''were'' treated kindly, they were just sick with fevers; their owner was clearly upset over how sick they were, which is why she forces you to help out.)* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2'' teaches us how vegetables are good for you--they can be used to kill enemies! This also can be [[UnfortunateImplications interpreted a bit differently...]]* ''VideoGame/MajinAndTheForsakenKingdom'' reminds us not to pollute, and not to become greedy and power-hungry. Because if you do that, an EldritchAbomination will cause all your pollution to become sentient and [[TheCorruption corrupt]] everyone in the country into violent indestructible tar-monsters driven by their basest desires.* ''VisualNovel/{{Snatcher}}'' - Trust other people and be open to them, or a mad Russian scientist responsible for wiping out most of Asia may take advantage of the culture of suspicion around you to trial a new plan to replace people with killer robots indistinguishable from them except for a tendency to get skin cancer and they'll start killing everyone and then the government will want to nuke your island to get rid of them before they spread and ''then'' you'll be sorry.* According to the grand finale of the ''VideoGame/RiddleSchool'' series, you should always stay in school-- because if you don't, [[spoiler:you'll set off a time-stop mine and inadvertently almost doom the entire planet to annihilation by an alien race.]]* ''VideoGame/AsurasWrath'': [[spoiler:Hey, don't overpopulate or pollute the planet or else a magma monster representing the will of the planet will mutate all of the planet's animals to kill all of us!]] Ultimately averted though. [[spoiler: Turns out the Gohma were created by Chakravartin, the creator God of the universe, to train the deities, and specifically Asura, to become the new God of Gaia. Pollution had nothing to do with it.]]* ''VideoGame/KidIcarusUprising'': Try talking things out first, [[spoiler:or you might end up freeing the most evil creature in existence, who will turn you into a ring for three years, possess a god, and start trying to wipe out humanity solely because it lives to spread destruction and chaos.]]* ''VideoGame/TalesOfVesperia'': If you don't use environmentally friendly technology, [[spoiler:a technicolor interdimensional ghost squid will come down from space and eat everybody.]]* The sponsored "Covert Ops" tasks in ''VideoGame/MarvelAvengersAlliance'' tend to have these, particularly the latest one, which was "Don't use knockoff cosmetics bought from shady street vendors, or [[CursedWithAwesome you may get super-powers]]."[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]* One story in ''Webcomic/{{Jack|DavidHopkins}}'' teaches the following moral: don't get consumed by anger against people who express bigoted views about you, or your partner might die from a demonic brain tumor that feeds on your anger. (Yes, the person in immediate danger is an innocent third party, not the one who did something bad.) Those familiar with [[Literature/TheBible the Old Testament]] can tell you that that notion is surprisingly accurate.* ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'' has [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2002-06-24 Read or the Owl will eat you.]]* ''Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt'' has a [[http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=598 chapter]] that seems to be leading up to an aesop about [[http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=610 treating others the way you'd want to be treated,]] but instead it ends with [[http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=632 this.]]* In ''Webcomic/TheDogHouseDiaries'', [[http://www.thedoghousediaries.com/?p=207 Don't run with scissors.]]* ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' :[[http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=003819 This is exactly why babies should not be allowed to dual-wield flintlock pistols.]]* The first strip of ''WebComic/{{minus}}''. Don't bully the new kid, she might be a RealityWarper who will [[AndIMustScream imprison you with trees that appeared out of nowhere]].* ''[[WebComic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja Dr McNinja]]'': [[http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/11p56/ "If you don't die when you are supposed to, really awful things will happen to you...in the service of Dracula."]] Maybe. He's not sure. [[AltText And death can come for you at any time, in the form of a moon laser.]] Other "Dr. [=McNinja's=] Final Thoughts" epilogues are similar.* ''Webcomic/{{Sinfest}}'' [[http://www.sinfest.net/view.php?date=2012-08-12 explains]] that pornography is harmful because it makes you and your furniture crash through walls.* ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'': If you use GOTO, you get [[http://xkcd.com/292/ attacked by a Velociraptor]].* DoubleSubversion in ''Webcomic/RustyAndCo''. [[http://rustyandco.com/comic/25/ Mimic starts to tell the Princess that she shouldn't smoke.]] Princess says that, A, her lungs, her choice, and B, they live in an RPGMechanicsVerse so she can just get somebody to cast a healing spell. [[spoiler:Then Mimic explains that monsters hunt by smell as an [[http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/otyugh.htm otyugh]] comes up behind the Princess.]]* ''Webcomic/SamAndFuzzy'': [[http://samandfuzzy.com/1756 No, the moral not "killing in self defense is justified".]] The moral is apparently "killing an assassin from an ancient ninja organization is justified" because it is so weird that morality stops applying, or something. (i.e. if things gets so weird like they only happen in comics, do as you please.)* An in-universe example happens in ''Webcomic/QuestionableContent'', when it's revealed Clinton got his robotic hand after an childhood accident involving fireworks. As his sister notes, since he prefers his new limb to his original and doesn't regret losing it in the slightest, the moral of the story being "Don't play with fireworks!" has been warped into "Playing with fireworks can give you cool robot limbs!"* "[[http://imgur.com/gallery/0X1wx The Impact Of Your Words]]": If you're polite and understanding to a person who's expressing their thoughts to you, the two of you will relate and become a couple [[spoiler:who together fend off an alien invasion]]. If you're rude and demanding to your partner instead, [[spoiler:Earth will be taken over by aliens.]]* ''Blog/SliceOfLife'' gives us:-->'''Pumpkin Cake:''' "I learned not to accept favors from semi-omnipotent beings of pure chaos."[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]* [[SpoofAesop Played for laughs]] in ''Website/CollegeHumor'''s [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFR07vsnWjA Extreme Anti-Smoking Ad]]: Smoking will cause [[spoiler:a RobotWar]]. It's also combined with ''DoNotDoThisCoolThing''. Quite a few commenters found it awesome if smoking [[spoiler:turns them into badass killer cyborgs]].* [[http://www.unicorn-dream.co.uk/destrier/Fiction/perfectsympathy.html Perfect Sympathy]] by "J.B. Burro" has the aesop "Don't mistreat your horse" or [[spoiler:you will suddenly wake up one day in your horse's place and your horse will be the abusive owner]].* The website Kids-in-Mind doesn't do actual reviews but only a full list of material parents might find objectionable in a film, including violence, sex, profanity et cetera. Because one category for each write-up explains a movie's overall message, the site tends to offer up {{Space Whale Aesop}}s when forced to find the "message" in explosive action movies, gory slasher flicks, and other genres famous for not really having many teachable moments. For instance, the message of the ''Film/EvilDead2013'' remake is "consult a professional before staging an intervention." Because if you don't, you'll unwittingly unleash an ancient evil and all your friends will die horribly and messily, you see.* On ''WebVideo/VampireReviews,'' [[VampireVannabe Maven]] notes that she first saw ''Film/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' on a church camp. The point was to open up a discussion about priorities in a person's life, but she interprets it as "If you're a shallow bitch vampires will slaughter everyone you care about. ''Be nice!''" * Played for laughs in ''LetsPlay/TwoSaiyansPlay''. When Krillin is forced to play ''VideoGame/SlenderTheArrival'', he suggests there's an environmental message in the AbandonedMine level. Don't sell your land to mining companies or a [[HumanoidAbomination faceless monster]] will murder you and set up shop there. * Bob's shorts on ''WebAnimation/WeeblAndBob'' tend to veer into this. According to "Penguins", you should "never leave your penguin unattended" in case it spontaneously combusts, and according to "Doods", the principle of "safety in numbers" will prevent you and your friends from being mauled by lions.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' ** "Free Willzyx" has a ''literal'' Space Whale Aesop: "If you mess with kids' minds, they will shoot a whale into space." A more typical example: In "It Hits the Fan," "Don't abuse swear words or an EldritchAbomination will awaken!" And from "Fun with Veal": "Eating veal is wrong because it is made from mistreated baby cows, but if you don't eat meat at all, you become a pussy." (yes, quite literally).** "Funnybot" had perhaps the weirdest one of all. "Don't have comedy awards or a robot will destroy the world".* The "moral" of the [[Creator/VanBeurenStudios Rainbow Parade cartoon]] "Grandfather's Clock"; don't play around with or smash clocks, because they have hearts and feelings just like you and me!* Many episodes of ''WesternAnimation/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers'', in a desperate attempt to [[{{Anvilicious}} hammer in the importance of the issues]], provide ludicrously overblown and immediate consequences for small-scale ecological harm. The main problem is the constant portrayal of pollution being caused by {{supervillain}}s ForTheEvulz.* A British series that also aired in Australia and Canada, called ''WesternAnimation/GrizzlyTalesForGruesomeKids'', was MADE of this trope. Watch too much TV? You'll end up as a potato chip at the back of someone's fridge. Get arrogant and fail to do your schoolwork properly? A gremlin will destroy your brain's memory centers. This was fused with a jarring blend of Nightmare Fuel and [[ComedicSociopathy a claymation old man mistreating his pet spider, played for laughs.]]* In the ''WesternAnimation/StargateInfinity'' episode "The Illustrated Stacey," the team goads Stacey into getting an alien tattoo by insisting that she's too boring to do such a spontaneous thing. (It should be noted here that Stacey has multiple piercings, blue lipstick, and a pink mohawk.) The Aesop is something like "don't do things just to prove yourself" or "think before you act"; but the reason for this moral is that the tattoo ink is made up of microbes that start multiplying, threatening to cover Stacey's body and kill her within the day. Fortunately, ''most'' real life tattoos do not contain deadly diseases. (And the ones that do take much longer to kill.)* ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'' ** A sketch featured a mother telling her son [[Literature/IfYouGiveAMouseACookie that you shouldn't give a mouse a cookie]], or he'll turn into a vampire that will infect the country causing a nuclear war. That's why she killed her husband. He was giving a mouse a cookie.** [[WesternAnimation/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers "Protect the environment]], [[http://robotchicken.wikia.com/wiki/Captain_Planet or I'll]] ''[[SoundEffectBleep f***]][[PrecisionFStrike ing]] kill you!''"* On ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'', in one of the Halloween episodes, the resident {{Moral Guardian|s}} gets a group of children to go on a tour in her "[[TheMoralSubstitute Hallelujah House]]," showing various scenes of how she views atheists and "the Druids." One of them has a pair of actors talking about wanting to have pre-marital sex. The lady suddenly rotates the scene, now showing morgue cabinets with two pairs of legs marked HIM and HER.--> "I guess the old saying is true: '''Sex kills.'''"** These are real, believe it or not.* In ''WesternAnimation/OzzyAndDrix'', the average boy that the characters live inside of [[HollywoodPudgy puts on a few pounds]] in one episode. Apparently, this is enough to have his otherwise healthy body nearly go into cardiac arrest.* ''WesternAnimation/{{Trollz}}'' once had Ruby encounter a Space Whale BrokenAesop: It's always good to act nice and set a good example to your friends... [[spoiler: unless a magical spell has turned them evil anyway.]]* Referenced in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': Rod and Todd Flanders are watching a religious-themed educational show, but since the star characters are sheep, they don't see how their problems and solutions apply to humans.* On one episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'', [[MagicVersusScience the distinction between magic and science]] is discussed, with a focus on keeping your heritage alive -- including the "magical" aspects of it. The Aesop works out as "Believe in your grandmother's teachings, or else a giant magic humanoid raven will destroy your land ForTheEvulz."* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' is set in a fantasy world and has AnAesop OncePerEpisode, so it was inevitable.** [[SoOnceAgainTheDayIsSaved Dear Princess Celestia]], no matter how strong and smart you may be, there are some things you just can't do alone. Friends have a special bond that has more meaning than you can find in any book. So cherish your friends, nurture your relationships with them, and always hold them near and dear to your heart, because together you can smite evil with a badass rainbow WaveMotionGun. Because [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin friendship... is magic]].** Remember kids, it's better to give than receive -- [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E10SecretOfMyExcess or else you'll turn into a giant greedy monster and practically destroy your hometown]].** "Hearth's Warming Eve": You'd better get along with people different from you or evil ice elementals will freeze your land in an ice age.** You should trust your instincts, because if somebody seems to be acting unlike themselves, they're being impersonated by a shapeshifting monster.** "Bats": Be understanding of those whose needs conflict with yours, and also don't let your friends force you into something you feel uncomfortable about, or else someone is going to turn into a half vampire fruit bat and you're going to have to sacrifice your human-sized apple to turn them back.** Looking for a good bonding experience with your best friend? Spend the day together trying to nurse an ill MadGod back to health, then drag him to the boarders of your country and get yourselves nearly eaten by a SandWorm. Because ''any'' experience can be fun when you're with friends.* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' ** Lampshaded in the episode "The Birdbot of Ice-Catraz."---> '''Leela:''' Oh, if only we hadn't flown penguins to Pluto and dumped oil on them, this might never have happened!** Further parodied in "A Big Piece of Garbage", with its Space Whale GreenAesop: If you just shoot your trash into space instead of recycling, it will eventually come back and destroy you. Further parodied with a SpoofAesop at the end, "It's perfectly all right to use half-assed solutions to your problems, and let people in the future deal with the long-term consequences."** "Decision 3012" gives us "voting Republican will cause robots to rise up and destroy humanity."* The ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' episode "Phineas and Ferb Get Busted" gives us "If you tattle on your brothers, they'll get sent to a military school where they'll have all their spirit crushed." [[AllJustADream Candace was dreaming]]. [[DreamWithinADream While on a dream by Perry]].* The original ''WesternAnimation/JimmyNeutronBoyGenius'' movie: "Don't talk to strangers or aliens will kidnap every adult in town, including your parents." Or "appreciate all that your parents do for you (or they'll be abducted by aliens)."* Mundane pranks turning into supernatural problems is a pillar of ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow'''s plotlines.-->'''Benson:''' I hope you've learned something from all this!-->'''Rigby:''' Yeah. Make sure we do our chores so you don't narc on us to a giant eyeball.* ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'' taught us not to bring wild animals home because if you do, those animals will apparently invite their buddies over to party.-->"Wild animals throw very wild parties."* ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'' tells us not to cheat on a test, otherwise all of your friends and family will die and the future world will be ''completely destroyed by you.''* One of ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends''' U.S. Acres cartoons featured Roy leaving the farm to go into showbiz, and joining the [[TastesLikeDiabetes annoyingly edutaining]] Buddy Bears show to teach kids proper manners and hygiene habits. He played the Goofus to the female Buddy Bear's Gallant, and not only were the consequences ridiculous, but one of the Bears literally warned them as cause-and-effect relationships along the lines of "If you don't [do polite/clean/encouraged-by-parents'-groups behavior], a [random large heavy object] will fall on your head."* ''WesternAnimation/DinoSquad'' generally treats global warming as a bad thing, but in one episode tried to tell us part of the reason we should work to prevent it is because otherwise some prehistoric danger that was frozen in ice will be defrosted, mutated by a supervillain, and destroy us all.* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' had a few, usually attached to {{Bizarro Episode}}s.** For example, "[[Recap/TeenTitansS3E4Crash Crash]]" had a DigitalPiracyIsEvil Aesop delivered by way of Beast Boy downloading a new video game and trying to play it on Cyborg's system recharger, which in turn infects Cyborg, giving him [[MeatOVision food-based hallucinations]] and then nearly destroys the city.** "[[Recap/TeenTitansS4E5EmployeeOfTheMonth Employee of the Month]]" is either an anti-meat Aesop or an anti-[[spoiler:''Tofu'']] Aesop, depending on how one interprets the text. Namely, [[spoiler: Beast Boy takes a job at a disgusting restaurant that specializes in gelled meat - except the "meat" is sentient Space Tofu seeking to steal cows for fuel and destroy the earth because "It is our way."]]* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo'', being a StatusQuoIsGod "wacky" show where anything can happen because it'll all be reset next episode anyway, has "don't try to make your friend who was pretending to be a ghost think he actually ''is'' a ghost to teach him a lesson, or he'll decide that since he's dead he can't get hurt any more and run off to jump in a volcano for fun, and while you're trying to stop him random lasers from outer space will kill half your party (the others will also die, but from more reasonable causes)".* Played humorously in ''WesternAnimation/TheAngryBeavers'' episode "The Loogie Hawk": if you remove a species from its natural habitat, the forest will fall apart. No, really, it will '''literally''' and immediately fall apart.* ''{{Spliced}}'':** {{Lampshaded}} in "Roots": "I promise I'll never be lazy enough to turn into a tree again!"** "Cleaning Up": "Have good hygiene or your dirt will take on a life of its own and try to replace you"** "Stompabout" has two in-universe examples from Wingus about getting angry. Firstly that if he doesn't learn to control his anger, he'll become a cyborg and sink the island with his robot legs. The second that if he is ''too'' determined not to get angry, Fuzzy will become a SuperSoldier and take over the island (the latter became a ChekhovsGun in "Sgt. Snuggums", which itself was an example: "Don't play pranks on your friends or they'll turn into insane SuperSoldiers who see everyone as evil robots that need to be destroyed")** "Amazon": "Take proper care of your pets or they'll form their own civilization where you're a wanted criminal"** "Juice": "Don't be too determined to be popular or all your friends will turn into juice-obsessed zombies"** "Promises, Promises": "Fulfill your promises or your best friend will have his brain stolen by a MadScientist in order to power a toaster"** "Taste of Friendship": "Don't be jealous of your friends or your mind will be taken over by an evil squid"** "Sugar Low": "Don't eat too much sugar or time will stop"** "The Mutants Who Cried Monster": "Admit to your mistakes or a giant robot will destroy your hometown"** "Livin' La Vida Lava": "Don't use too much power or you'll trigger an ice age in which yetis become the dominant species"** "Mo' Mayo, Mo' Problems": "Don't eat too much junk food or the junk food will eat ''you''"** "Walkie-Talkie-Spinesuckie": "Think for yourself or a mad scientist will make you suck out all your friends' spines to feed a baby robot and then throw them in the volcano"** "Whirrel Call": "Don't be cruel to animals or you'll swap brains with them"** "Stomach on Strike": "Live a healthy lifestyle or your organs will become sentient and jump out of your body"** "Bite, Shuffle and Moan": "Stay in bed when you're sick or you'll cause a ZombieApocalypse"* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'':** "[[Recap/GravityFallsS2E5SoosAndTheRealGirl Soos and the Real Girl]]" takes the already questionable Aesop "[[DatingSim Virtual romance]] is bad, you should 'mature' and find real love" and adds "Because your AI girlfriend might be a [[AIIsACrapshoot sentient, psychotic]] {{yandere}}".[[/folder]]